Index : B : Before They Were President

Structure Sub-topic of: Presidential Trivia Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 40 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display. Frequently Asked Questions & Answers There are 30 user-asked question matches ( goto ) Special Topics Hail to the School of the Chief "Obviously A Yale Man"

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

Before They Were President

Whose parents belonged to a religious group which opposed war or violence of any kind?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Dwight Eisenhower. They were members of the Church of the Brethren in Christ. They were not thrilled with their son's decision to go to West Point, but allowed him to choose his own career.



Who, on a trip to Maine, was tormented by two boys and was so ashamed his father built him a gym so he could get stronger?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Theodore Roosevelt.



Who wore a suit and tie to high school and once worked at Yellowstone as a ranger?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Gerald Ford.



Who was refused entry into West Point due to poor eyesight and spent 15 years paying back debt after his clothing business failed?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Harry Truman.



Who was more interested in cock fighting than studying?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Andrew Jackson.



Who was kicked out of Dickinson College for breaking the rules?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


James Buchanan.



Who was given a farm he named 'Hardscrabble' by his step-father?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Ulysses Grant.



Who was friends with writer Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Franklin Pierce.



Who was called 'Tommy' as a child?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Woodrow Wilson. His given first name was 'Thomas' but he dropped it later.



Who was born in a farming state and picked potato bugs to earn money to buy fireworks?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Herbert Hoover.



Who was a lawyer that defended the civil rights of blacks and won a case establishing the rights of blacks to ride any streetcar in New York City?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Chester Arthur.



Who told his students (when he was a teacher) that one day he would be president?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Lyndon Johnson.



Who saw two brothers die (one of tuberculosis and one of meningitis) because his family couldn't afford medical care?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Richard Nixon. He was particularly disturbed by his beloved older brother's death from tuberculosis.



Who paid a sub to take his place in the Civil War?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Grover Cleveland. It was not an uncommon practice, but Cleveland did catch some heat for it.



Who married his teacher?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Millard Fillmore.



Who left home at 16, inspired by adventurous books to be a sailor on the Great Lakes, but gave up when a ship captain cursed him and drove him away?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


James Garfield.



Who led a revolt against his tyrannical schoolmaster at age 11?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


John Tyler.



Who hated chemistry so much he put a bottle of bad smelling hydrogen sulfide in a teacher's desk and as an adult called teaching the 'hardest job I ever had'?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Warren Harding.



Who had a reputation as a flirt and while engaged wrote a love letter to his best friend's wife, Sally Fairfax?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


George Washington.



Who had a mother that kept track of her many children (health, school, etc.) via a system of index cards?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


John Kennedy.



Who had a mother that died of 'milk sickness' when he was 9?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Abraham Lincoln. Milk sickness was thought to be caused by poison in the milk of cows eating snakeroot.



Who had a father who refused to attend his son's wedding because his daughter-in-law's father, a prosperous man in St. Louis, owned three slaves?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Ulysses Grant.



Who begged his father when only 10 to let him accompany his father to France on a diplomatic mission?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


John Quincy Adams.



Who became homesick when sent to school at 11 and walked 14 miles home, but his father drove him 7 miles back and left him to walk the remaining 7 miles?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


Franklin Pierce.



Who almost became a minister, but his annoying voice drove him to politics instead?

Before Becoming President (Amatullah)


James Madison.

• Before he became the first president of a certain country he was responsible for numbers of British schoolchildren collecting horse chestnuts. Who was he and what were the horse chestnuts used for? ( goto )



• How many people have been president before President Clinton? ( goto )



• What city were the 1916 Olympics supposed to be in before they were cancelled? ( goto )



• Before they were called the Nebraska Cornhuskers what were they known as? ( goto )



• Were insects created before the flood or after? ( goto )



• Who was the first US president who was a millionaire before he was elected? ( goto )



• What US president was baptized a Methodist a week before he died? ( goto )



• Before Lewis Carroll, who were Tweedledum and Tweedledee? ( goto )



• Who was president of the United States for only one day before Zachary Taylor? ( goto )



• Who penned the 1965 book 'Portrait of the Assassin' before meeting two as US president? ( goto )



• What were AC/DC going to be called before they were AC/DC? ( goto )



• Where were the Beverly Hillbillies from before they moved to California? ( goto )



• Is it true that rifles were unheard of before America's War of the Rebellion? ( goto )



• Was Gerald Ford appointed vice president before or after the Watergate scandal broke in the press? ( goto )



• What US president was secretly sworn in two days before the official inauguration ceremony? ( goto )



• Which state did Bill Clinton govern before becoming the 42nd president of the United States? ( goto )



• What were the names the Beatles used before settling upon the Beatles? ( goto )



• What was used to stop play in hockey before whistles were used? ( goto )



• What did people use to write before pencils were invented? ( goto )



• Had Wendell Willkie been elected or appointed to any public office before running for US president in 1940? ( goto )



• What 2 US Presidents were elected to Congress after serving as President? ( goto )



• Just before graduating law this future US president tried for a job with the FBI but got no reply. Who was he? ( goto )



• Who was the last US president before George W. Bush to be elected in a year divisible by 20 and not be shot and/or die in office? ( goto )



• Before the Civil War what were some of Robert E. Lee's jobs? ( goto )



• Before being moved to the Tower of London, where were the Crown Jewels housed? ( goto )



• Before people built and lived in houses what were house flys called? ( goto )



• Does anyone know what the Brit awards were previously called before they were called the Brit awards? ( goto )



• For how many generations were the Jedi Knights the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic, before the Dark Times, before the Empire? ( goto )



• 20% of all people in the US were slaves when which president took office? ( goto )



• What two men were the only appointees to the office of US vice president? ( goto )